Sixth Sense
by Destiny Lockheart
Summary: While performing her duty to heal and protect the four travelers that arrived in her world, Princess Tomoyo reflects on Kurogane and those who are important to him. KxT & KxF


Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa or any of the characters. They are all the property of CLAMP

Warning: This story contains spoilers up to chapters 166 and 167, and contains hints of both Kurogane/Tomoyo and Kurogane/Fai.

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In the days immediately following the ragged group's arrival in her country, Tomoyo-hime had been too busy to grant much time to thought or emotion. Four wounded people needed immediate medical attention, and while she had summoned other miko from the surrounding area to aid her with the healing, she felt solely responsible for the survival of all four of them. Though she only had vague notions of who the travelers that arrived with Kurogane were, she knew all of them were very important to the ninja and it would break him entirely if any one of them were to die. For Kurogane's sake, she vowed to use her power to keep them all alive.

They reached their first obstacle almost immediately after the group landed roughly on the ground outside the palace. The group needed individual medical attention to treat their specific ailments. The boy reluctantly gave up the princess, but Tomoyo could tell he knew the gentle woman offering to take her from him could take much better care of the wounded princess than he ever could, especially considering his own wounded condition. Kurogane, though unconscious, refused to loosen his death grip he had on the blond's coat, and the mage, awake and silently crying, was not helping the woman trying to pull him away by lying perfectly still. Eventually, they had to call Souma over who had to pry open Kurogane's fingers long enough for two of the other women to pull the blond far enough away that Kurogane could not grab onto him again. She could tell Kurogane's body tensed as the other man was pulled away from him, but she also noticed he relaxed once they stopped pulling him farther away.

Even though Tomoyo could not see all that had happened on their journey together, she took pity on the two of them and arranged for Fai to be placed in the same room as Kurogane for healing. She initially undertook the ninja's healing herself because he was the most badly injured, and she was the strongest of the miko she had assembled. Later, after she had a few days to clear her mind and to think about it, she realized she had undertaken Kurogane's healing for primarily personal reasons. She was deeply invested in the survival of the ninja, and she did not trust his care to any of the visiting miko who knew nothing about him.

She would go to the others as well, to see how they were faring, especially the princess who was so cold, so unlike what Tomoyo had imagined her to be. Even the princess' sleeping face informed her that this girl was meant to be warm and cheerful. The boy healed relatively quickly, and spent the subsequent days in the princess' room looking after her, where she learned he had been going by the name of "Syaoran."

By the second day, Tomoyo could tell that the mage was pretending to be asleep when she was in the room. The miko that had been tending him informed her princess she thought the foreigner was doing better, however, Tomoyo could tell even if he was physically recovering, he was still tormented relentlessly emotionally, and keeping him so close to the ninja who had sacrificed so much for him could only have been making him worse. She had been so proud of Kurogane for learning the lessons that he had, but she understood for the one he had sacrificed for, it was a completely different experience. She wasn't surprised when she came back from checking on Sakura one day to find the blond had gone missing from the room.

Tomoyo understood the mage was trying to heal himself in his own way. He disappeared for a few days and when Tomoyo interrogated the palace staff, none could remember seeing a strange foreigner walking around unattended. Yet from Kurogane's body language, she knew the man could not have gone far or else she was certain her former ninja would have wrenched himself back into consciousness and gone in search for the man against better advice. She saw him a few days later, awkwardly standing in front of the room she was keeping Kurogane in, stuck between a gesture of walking away and one of opening the door and entering the room. Tomoyo thought perhaps it would be polite if she would go and introduce herself to him considering they both shared a very deep connection with the same man, but she decided the blond was not ready for something like that and let him be. He turned away and skidded down the hallway when he realized she had returned anyway. She could not heal his emotional wounds, and perhaps the blond needed some time away from Kurogane to think.

She only left Kurogane's side for brief periods of time, during which her sole objective was to see how the princess was faring and return to her own patient as soon as possible. The girl's status was not changing, but if her dream about the nature of her injuries had been correct, she was not surprised. The boy would have to get her soul back before they would see any real improvement in the princess. Kurogane's recovery was much more encouraging. She could tell the ninja was getting stronger every day, and that he would be fit enough to wake up soon. However, she knew if the blond was not around when he woke up that she would not be able to fulfill her most important task.

She tried not to let her smile show when the blond snuck quietly into the room and knelt down across from her on Kurogane's other side. He made no move to introduce himself, so she allowed him to contemplate the resting ninja in silence, noticing his eyes occasionally flickering over to the empty sleeve of the kimono. He was managing to heal himself in time, yet she was not going to force him into a conversation he was not ready for.

From that moment, the man would only leave Kurogane's side when he absolutely had to. She was actually glad for the silent company during her vigil as she prayed for the precious ninja. The blond was quiet the entire time they were in the room together, and Kurogane progressed in his healing even faster once the mage joined them. The time when he would be able to awake was drawing very near.

"You are someone very important to Kurogane," she said to the mage as they each kept to their duty on either side of Kurogane.

"So are you, Tomoyo-hime," he responded with a sad smile as he looked over to her for the first time. She could see in his eye he had reached some agreement with himself and the hesitancy that still remained.

"I am afraid you have an unfair advantage of knowing my name." Her dreams had never told her the names of the people Kurogane had been travelling with; they had only shown her his relationship to all of them and how special they had all grown in his heart.

"I don't have a name yet," he responded as he looked resumed gazing sadly at the face of the sleeping ninja.

Tomoyo understood without knowing. Though it seemed odd that they should have not had a name to call the man by the entire time they had been travelling with him, she understood his meaning with the way he was looking wistfully down at Kurogane. For reasons she could not comprehend, he was waiting for the ninja to wake up and give him a name. "Could you please wait outside for a moment?" The ninja was not stirring yet, but he would be soon. Tomoyo wanted to talk to him about something very important, and she wanted to make sure the blond man heard what she was saying to help him realize what he had to do.

Kurogane was looking remarkably well for someone who had gone through as much as she had, and she respected him for worrying about his companions as soon as he was awake. She had done all she could to help with his physical injuries, but it would have to be the other three to completely heal him. She listened with pride to the things he told her, exceedingly grateful things had turned out so magnificently for him.

However, her dreams could tell her nothing of what the foreigner was going to do now, so still she worried as she called him back into the room. She did not know what she could possibly do if that man broke Kurogane's heart again, for punishing him for that would only kill Kurogane more. She could only hope that listening to Kurogane talk had allowed him to reach a decision within himself, and that that decision would not be one to shatter Kurogane's heart again, for she feared in his weakened condition this time it would really kill the ninja.

The punch confused her as much as it seemed to confuse Kurogane, but since the ninja quickly recovered and started joking with the blond man, a foreign sound to her ears and quite welcome, she decided to dismiss the punch as something men did with each other in odd circumstances. She left them to their playing, feeling that surely the two of them would want a bit of privacy to talk after all that had happened, and slid the door quietly shut behind her so as to not distract the two of them with her absence.

The mage had been right. The two of them were both very important to Kurogane, as were the wounded princess, the boy calling himself "Syaoran," and that little white magical creature that had grown on him. As she made her ways through the hall of the palace to check on the princess again, she dreaded the possible future in which poor Kurogane's heart would be torn as he had to decide exactly which of them was the most important to him.


End file.
